Hlas: Cold reality bites for Hawkeye football

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Facing reality is useful.

So accept this reality now: You (and you, and you, and you) who want a regime change in Iowa football aren't getting one. Iowa Athletic Director Gary Barta made that clear weeks ago.

Let's proceed to another reality. This program has two problems that made themselves mighty evident Friday at EverBank Field.

One was the way the Hawkeyes got blown out of the TaxSlayer Bowl. Iowa's loss to a rising, energetic Tennessee team wasn't as close as the 45-28 score indicates. It was Minnesota Redux, a thorough beating from a team with a dual-threat quarterback and aggressive defense.

Problem No. 2, or actually, No. 1, is the golden goose that is Iowa football may not be laying as many golden eggs for the rest of Hawkeye athletics in the future.

Barta said there were about 5,000 Iowa fans among the crowd of 56,310. The Hawkeyes had at least that many fans at the Outback Bowl's Beach Day two days before their game against LSU last New Year's.

'Every time we come to Florida, we just swarm, we invade it,' one Iowa fan told a Baton Rouge television reporter last year. 'That's what we call it, 'The Invasion of Iowa.' '

It's been 'The Invasion of Iowa' at almost all the Hawkeyes' bowls of the last 30-plus years, whether it's been San Antonio or Tampa, or El Paso or Tempe. There was a warm feeling those fans emitted. They clearly felt they needed to be at their team's bowl, that even if times weren't great at the moment, they'd be great again before long.

Iowa sold 5,411 tickets for the 2011 Insight Bowl in Tempe, Ariz., and there were a lot more Hawkeye fans than that at the game. That was after a mundane regular-season following a 2010 season that ended at that very same bowl.

Now, there was no way this wasn't going to be a virtual home game for Tennessee. Knoxville is only 550 miles from Jacksonville, and Volunteer fans were bowl-starved after a 5-year absence. But Iowa fans were only black-clad speckles on one big, happy orange-colored face.

It wasn't Jacksonville's fault. Iowans would have helped fill the mostly empty upper deck here had they been madly in love with their team and its coach like they had been for so long. This matchup didn't grab them, this season didn't grab them. Worst of all, the future doesn't grab them.

You know full well how things can change from year to year, and how fickle and funny college football can be. Maybe the 2015 Hawkeyes dart out of the gates for a change and don't stop charging until they've taken multitudes of fans to a sweetheart of a bowl.

But the reality of now is Iowa's 2015 home schedule is lackluster and the program has no bounce from which to sell tickets. A lot of people are tired with the way how the Hawkeyes play and how they're coached. A lot.

Not only did Iowa bow out with a 7-6 record in a year when so much more was expected, but the curtain fell with them getting left in the dust by a team that also finished 7-6, but looked like a heck of a fun outfit for Tennesseans to support.

What does Iowa do to stay in the hearts of those who aren't completely emotionally tied to Hawkeye football and can't imagine skipping Saturdays at Kinnick Stadium? I have no idea.

Perhaps the only thing it can do is bite its lip and accept the fact the season-ticket base will see erosion this off-season.

Ferentz said 'That's about as good a month (of practice) as we've had since I've been here, 16 years.'

Either he misread how good those practices were, they aren't practicing the right things, or his team just isn't very good. Or any combination.

I asked a couple of Tennessee television sports reporters if the Vols had played anyone as bad as Iowa this year. 'Maybe Vanderbilt,' one said.

Maybe Vanderbilt. How's that for an epitaph of the Hawkeyes' season? But here's the real one: After the season's last game, the football operation didn't make its quarterbacks available to the media. Wow.

What were they afraid Beathard might say? 'Maybe Vanderbilt?'

'Tomorrow we'll get up and start preparing for 2015,' Barta said. That's probably a good idea.

It sounds like it's going to be really cold in Iowa. That could last a while.